Our headquarter is surrounded. The government’s decision to allow free ownership of weapons, as necessary as it is in a world full of monsters, is biting us in the rear. These people are bitter about being treated not quite as first rate citizens for decades. I don’t care. I do not volunteer for collective therapy by whatever calibre their ammo be. An alarm means that I am officially supposed to be in full combat gear. At this point I do not care about de-escalation, whatever the police part of our crew may be trained to do. We fought and one of us was seriously wounded, to the point of medevac by helicopter and hours of surgery with a shoulder blade shattered, as we have heard. I do care about group cohesion though. So I am looking for my team members. Thomas may not remember where our vehicles is located. But the guy has a better memory than I feared.
T: What now?
U: We sit tight and wait for orders. And we watch. You cannot have too much information in a tactical situation.
They are chanting slogans.
» Wizards go home
» Our homes are ours
» Traitors against their own people
» They have caused the monsters
» Monsters are a scam
Consistency is not a strength of mobs. Our police component is out in riot gear. They do have body armor, but potentially people out there are carrying rifles. Demonstrators being armed is still illegal, but people confronting a military outpost cannot be relied upon as far as legality is concerned.
Major Carstens is forming up a detachment of his people with an armored car featuring a true 25mm cannon in the lead. If he really wants to use this to break out of here, the victims will number in the dozens. So far they are only in ready formation, hidden from outside view. It seems like he does not want to do this but is ready to, should the need arise.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
This has been going on for another tense half an hour. Major Carstens deigns to inform our commander.
MC: We have a piece of technology here that must not fall into the wrong hands or damaged.
D: We are police officers.
MC: I know. That is why I am giving orders now and you will be silent and listen to orders.
U: Let him speak.
MC: This piece of technology must not fall into the hands of some rabble rousers. That means that I cannot allow them to enter the compound while the device is still here. Depending on the circumstances, that is, if they make a serious push, we may either not be able to resolve the situation with minimal force or we need to evacuate the device. We are preparing for all options.
U: I must protest.
MC: Again, that does you credit, but I do not care. This is war time. If you get the order, you join the convoy and the protection of your wizards is your priority.
Her face is a work of art.
U: … Yes, sir.
A shot rings out. To this day I have no idea who fired. Nor do I think anybody knows.
A second shot falls. This time one of our soldiers is hit. Whether his body armor has prevented the worst outcome is unclear to me.
Our military contingent is firing a salvo of warning shots. The mob is in paniked retreat. That could have been it. An incident with minimal casualities. Some idiots are hurling moltov cocktails. A person has caught fire and is being extinguished. Members of the military, whose orders I have no idea about possibly Carstens’ people are firing for effect. Somebody is firing back. Our base commander is not in a mood to lose people to a mob.
The incident ends with a soldier and a policeman being medevaced, one with multiple broken ribs, the other with some minor burns. The news were to report that six victims under the demonstrators were found.
MC: I cannot have our technology and the wizards delayed by some investigation. Evacuate now!
We are leaving into the night.